00:00/00:00

Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear.  I’m Fred Fishkin.   Kohl’s has found an unusual approach to dealing with the Amazon behemoth.  The brick and mortar retail chain is partnering with Amazon…allowing its stores to be used for easy returns of merchandise purchased through Amazon.  Why would they do that?  The logic is if Amazon customers bring stuff back that way….chances are they will spend some money in Kohl’s while they are there.  After a trial run in limited locations, Kohl’s is expanding the Amazon returns to all 1150 stores in July.  Beyond that…Kohl’s will be selling Amazon smart home merchandise at branded kiosks in its stores as well.  For consumers…the convenience seems like pretty good news.  The irony is…the move by Kohl’s will actually make shopping via Amazon even more attractive.

You can find us at Techstination.com.  I’m Fred Fishkin.

Techstination Week is a compilation of this week's Techstination Reports with tech journalist and host Fred Fishkin

Plugo from PlayShifu brings AR to STEM learning for kids.   

 Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear.  I’m Fred Fishkin.   Combine augmented reality with physical magnetic blocks that become part of on screen fun….and you’ve got a very worthwhile educational toy called Plugo that can help kids learn everything from grammar to math.  It’s from a company called PlayShifu.  It has been on the market with other augmented reality learning toys like the Shifu Orboot smart globe and Minglings…that use AR to bring magnetic figurines to life.  With Plugo…there’s a lot to like for both kids …ages four to ten….and parents.  But keep in mind that you will need either an iPhone or iPad or an Android device… and that will require adult supervision…to keep an eye on things.  The price, under 80 dollars.  There’s more info at www.PlayShifu.com.

You can find us at Techstination.com.  I’m Fred Fishkin.

 Parental monitoring of what kids are watching & more: new on Caavo.  CEO Andrew Einaudi in Techstination interview.

 Leading South Korean dashcam maker Thinkware expands U.S. line-up.  Thinkware's Brian Yang in Techstination interview.. 

Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear.  I’m Fred Fishkin.  Spring time has been the season of peace treaties in the tech world.  And that should be good for us consumers.  Apple and Qualcomm ended their long running patent battle…and among the results will be Qualcomm’s chips coming back to the iPhone.  And that will mean 5G coming soon for Apple loyalists.  The deal, was not good news for Intel.  In another truce…. Amazon and Google have ended their spat.  And that will bring YouTube apps back to Amazon’s Fire TV…and in return…the Prime Video app will be available on Chromecast and Android TV devices.  Not all disputes have vanished…Dish subscribers still have to turn else for HBO for instance.  No word on when or if…that will ever be resolved.

You can find us at Techstination.com.  I’m Fred Fishkin.

 Garmin updates Forerunner watch series with 5 new models: Prod. Mgr. Joe Heikes chats with Techstination.

Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear.  I’m Fred Fishkin.  Instead of buying a new Mac computer…often a more affordable option is to upgrade.  Other World Computing has been helping Mac owners do that for years and now they are out with the  Aura Pro X2 internal NVME Flash SSD…that can add a lot of zip and storage…up to 2 terabytes…to many MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac Mini or Mac Pro models.  Product Marketing Manager A J Gerth…

“So we can increase the capacity as well as the performance and have a lower power draw.  So we’ve actually over the years been able to design better and better SSDs and this is the culmination of our expertise.”

With pricing starting at under 120 dollars for 240 gigabytes.  The 2 terabyte SSD comes in at under 700 dollars.

You can find us at Techstination.com.  I’m Fred Fishkin.